03.16.08
Sunday, March 16, 2008 - 5 a.m. CDT
Mission Control Center, Houston, TexasSTATUS REPORT: STS-123-11
STS-123 MCC STATUS REPORT #11
Astronauts Rick Linnehan and Mike Foreman spent more than seven hours
outside the International Space Station today attaching the two arms
of the Canadian Space Agency’s Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator,
or Dextre.
Dextre’s arms, each 11 feet long, provide the robot with the ability
to work outside the station to install small orbital replacement
units and conduct other maintenance tasks. Dextre can operate on the
end of the station’s robotic arm or ride independently on the Mobile
Base System.
Linnehan and Foreman completed the second spacewalk of the mission
removing some of the thermal covers that had been protecting Dextre
during its installation. Both astronauts coordinated their movements
with Mission Specialist Robert Behnken, who was serving inside
Endeavour as the spacewalk choreographer.
Meanwhile, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takao Doi
configured experiment and stowage racks within the newly installed
Japanese Experiment Logistics Module—Pressurized Section. The module
is a storage facility that provides stowage space for experiment
payloads, samples and spare items.
Linnehan and Foreman ventured outside the space station at 6:49 p.m.
CDT Saturday to begin the 7-hour, 8-minute spacewalk, which ended at
1:57 a.m. The spacewalk was the second in a series of five scheduled
for the STS-123 mission.
Wake-up time for both the shuttle and station crews is 2:28 p.m.
Sunday. The 10 crew members will spend the day working on various
cargo items that are to be transferred back and forth between
Endeavour and the International Space Station. The combined crews
also will continue configuring racks in the new Japanese module while
ground controllers test the electronics systems of Dextre now that it
has grown arms. The standard spacewalk procedures review, this one
for the third spacewalk, comes toward the end of the crew day.
The next STS-123 status report will be issued after crew wake-up on
Sunday, or earlier if events warrant.
-end-